--- title: Travel Hacks: 7 Tips for Booking Cheap Flights description: Save your travel funds for more important things, like happy hour canonical: https://time.com/4210250/7-tips-for-booking-cheap-flights/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-06T14:00:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:01:48.120Z og:title: 7 Tips for Booking Cheap Flights og:description: Save your travel funds for more important things, like happy hour og:url: https://time.com/4210250/7-tips-for-booking-cheap-flights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12f4e8902d687cc2/69887c5ea988cae5ab6b675b/airline-flight-cheap-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 102624691 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 Tips for Booking Cheap Flights twitter:description: Save your travel funds for more important things, like happy hour twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12f4e8902d687cc2/69887c5ea988cae5ab6b675b/airline-flight-cheap-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 7 Tips for Booking Cheap Flights by [The Editors of Motto](https://time.com/author/the-editors-of-motto/) ## The Editors of Motto Feb 6, 2016 2:00 PM UTC  Still life items that represent a family holiday. Still life items that represent a family holiday.Walker and Walker—Getty Images by [The Editors of Motto](https://time.com/author/the-editors-of-motto/) ## The Editors of Motto Feb 6, 2016 2:00 PM UTC If you’ve ever tried to book a last-minute trip, you know how hard it is to find flights that match all of your criteria. Balancing cheap travel with convenience and comfort is no easy feat. Whether you’re jetting across the country for a business trip or making use of your paid time off, it’s important to know how to navigate through all of the cost-cutting sites without getting totally lost in the interwebs. The biggest travel hack is all about knowing _when_ you should book your flights. Any Tuesday afternoon that falls well before your trip date is ideal because airline sales tend to be predictable. If you’ve procrastinated past that point, though, there are still some options. Clear your browsing data, scope out multiple airline prices and fasten your seatbelt to prepare for takeoff. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4210250/7-tips-for-booking-cheap-flights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4210250/7-tips-for-booking-cheap-flights/"},"headline":"7 Tips for Booking Cheap Flights","datePublished":"2016-02-06T14:00:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:01:48.120Z","description":"Save your travel funds for more important things, like happy hour","url":"https://time.com/4210250/7-tips-for-booking-cheap-flights/","keywords":["motto","Technology","Travel","Airline"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12f4e8902d687cc2/69887c5ea988cae5ab6b675b/airline-flight-cheap-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Editors of Motto","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-editors-of-motto/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12f4e8902d687cc2/69887c5ea988cae5ab6b675b/airline-flight-cheap-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"102624691","caption":"102624691","creditText":"Walker and Walker—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4210250/7-tips-for-booking-cheap-flights/","name":"7 Tips for Booking Cheap Flights"}}]}] ```